Day one of P3 – The Practice Innovation Conference's fifth anniversary, hosted by the LMA Client Value SIG, has come and gone at Chicago's Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel. The conference, of course, was not all business and, once again, offered an inspirational keynote, exceptional networking opportunties and plenty of chances to connect with service providers (check out all of P3's partners here).

Kicking off with Joshua Kubicki, attendees were inspired by his approach to legal business and his perspective on developing an "intrapreneur" culture. Kubicki drew from personal stories and shared specific tools to help attendees build their own success roadmaps, mentioning the following two books: The Innovator's Dilemma and Business Model Generation.

"Act with courage in your role as marketer, project manager, pricing or finance professional, that's how to become a trusted advisor," said Kubicki.

Attendees interested in receiving additional tools for success from Kubicki were encouraged to email him at P3keynote@gmail.com. In return, he will share his "Six Suggestions" white paper and a list of resources.

Day one also featured 16 concurrent or service provider education sessions, four concurrent education workshops and a discussion on diversity within the P3 community at the first-ever P3 Women's Initiative Network reception. Highlights from the day's education include:

When introducing a new software at your firm, experts recommend forming a "pilot group" of influencers (i.e., early adopters) so you can work out kinks and refine training so it is the most valuable for everyone. "Once you launch... it goes viral." (Session: Case Study: Successful Partner Adoption of Planning & Monitoring)

We need to keep evolving and changing, and roadmaps are a key component of that. Having a roadmap, or at least an outline for a roadmap, will help you to adopt a program of continuous improvement, address your firm's resources and structure, and look beyond pricing to things like legal project management or delivery models. (Session: The Challenge to Keep Moving – Pricing in Today's Legal Market)

The first 100 days is your chance to ask questions. Un-silo yourself by setting up meetings with your internal "equals" and ensure they are riding on the success of your positioning. (Session: The First 100 Days: Your Pricing and LPM Journey)

"Bad data analyzed well... is still bad." Through live audience polling, it was determined that 90 percent of this session's participants feel that hourly rate/pricing data is the most frequently requested by clients and the biggest data challenge faced in firms is poorly structured data. (Session: Leveraging Data to Optimize the Value of Legal Services)

After the 2007 mortgage crisis, firms found themselves tackling more matters than ever before, and, thus, began utilizing technology to streamline processes, such as contract management, task management and dashboarding. When incorporating new technology into your firm, understand exactly what you need, along with your firm’s culture, to guarantee the best results. (Session: Maximizing Efficiencies With Technology-backed Workflows)

Nothing can replace a conversation. When building or revising an Outside Counsel Management Maturity Model, sit down with the managing partner and discuss in detail what it is that they are looking for and what value they want to get from your firm. (Session: Debate: What is a "Value-based Relationship?")